A conveyor belt being guided centrally is moving in the direction of the pull-off container handling system in a prior-art central belt system. The order containers are stopped in front of the central belt and are kept motionless for a certain time period such that all articles of the central belt, which are intended for a certain order, will drop into the container.
Articles are kept in article shafts arranged in an A-shaped pattern above the central belt. One ejector is provided per article shaft. The ejectors are activated by a central control unit in such a timely manner that all the articles that belong to one order are collected in an increasingly larger pile on the central belt moving past.
An ascending belt is occasionally connected at the end of the central belt. This is needed to lift articles onto the container handling system, which may be running at a greater height.
The central belt is moving at a speed of about 1 msec in the normal operating mode.
Image processing is already established in the quality control of manufacturing companies. For example, imprints on containers are thus checked for completeness, mechanical components are tested for manufacturing defects, etc. The objects to be checked may be stopped for checking or may even be checked during motion. However, it is always known where in space the property of the object to be checked is located. It follows from this for image processing that the resolution of the cameras being used, the working distance as well as the illumination can be considered to be constant parameters.